Why Is Co-Living Trending?

Personal yoga and cooking classes, linen and towel service, and streaming service subscriptions, all included for under $1,000 rent in California? It’s not too good to be true: It is co-living. Renters must be comfortable with slightly less square footage and shared common spaces, but for an increasing number of young adults, it is preferable to shouldering a high rent or living in a parent’s basement. Not every co-living situation has yoga classes or a linen service, but they do provide community and a cheap place to live that often comes with a shorter, more flexible lease. 

Cassidy Claire Risien, 34, is an actor and artist living in Los Angeles but, even with her day job as a spin instructor, her budget is tight.

Despite that, she lives in a newly renovated townhouse in trendy Venice, California — just seven blocks from the beach.

“I had been living by myself and it was no longer sustainable,” she said. In an online search for rentals in her area, she set the price range to its lowest setting and a communal living, or co-living, option popped up among the results.

Now Risien pays less than a $1,000 a month to live at Haven, a co-living community.

Co-living spaces bring together a group of people, likely strangers, in a shared space. Often, there are private sleeping quarters but the kitchens and work areas are communal spaces.

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